Sunita Williams reveals two strangest things she witnessed in space: 'We took pictures'

Sunita Williams recalls rare and unforgettable views from space. (Image credit: Reuters)

• Sunita Williams shared her experiences from 608 days in space on a podcast
• She described seeing many satellites and rare atmospheric events like blue jets
• Williams believes in life beyond Earth, citing billions of stars in the universe

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Sunita Williams, the Indian-origin astronaut who recently retired after an exceptional 27-year career, has made a candid appearance on Raj Shamani's podcast. During the conversation, she revealed two of the strangest things that she had seen in space. The NASA astronaut, who logged 608 days in orbit, including nine months on the ISS, said the sheer number of satellites circling Earth and the breathtaking view of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), a rare atmospheric phenomenon photographed by her colleagues.

“Two different things that were different or have been different. There’s a lot of communication satellites up there now. And which is great because there’s a lot of communication now on Earth because we have these constellations of satellites. But there is. It was an impression, like, there is a lot of stuff in orbits around the planet,” Williams said in a podcast with Raj Shamani.

She continued, “The other thing, which was really cool this time, and we were able. It’s hard to see with the naked eye, but we have some really great cameras and we were able to take pictures. Not me in particular, but Don Pettit and Matt Dominic of blue jets and red sprites coming out of a thundercloud. Like energy coming up. It’s out there because Nicole Ayers took some after we left, too. And I think those are posted. Just amazing that we were able to take pictures of energy coming out of a thundercloud and out of lightning.”

Willians called her experience unforgettable and said, “That was pretty amazing. I had no idea those things existed. People knew they were existing, but it was hard to actually document it. And now the cameras that we have, we can document that. So all of that is pretty amazing.”

“So those pictures are out there also from Don Pettit, if anybody gets a moment to take a look on the Internet. Incredible pictures. So I had the luxury of being up there with some amazing photographers that were able to do that,” she added.

Shamani later asked Williams about the possibility of life beyond Earth, to which she said, “Do you believe there’s some life out there?” Williams answered without hesitation: “Absolutely. With those billions of stars out there, we’re just a little planet around one star. So, yeah, there’s life out there.”

Sunita Williams, one of the most accomplished astronauts of her generation, announced her retirement from NASA, bringing an end to her remarkable 27-year career. The 60-year-old astronaut has been to space three times.